28. Wet Dream
Chapter 28
Wet Dream
CALLIE
T hat wasn’t the response I expected.
I opened my mouth to voice my disapproval, but he didn’t give me the chance. “Rules aren’t randomly chosen because we’re trying to be dickheads. They’re to keep you safe. To protect you and this . If it’s negotiable, it won’t be a rule.”
“What happens if I break one?”
Marco gave my thigh a tighter squeeze, and his hard-on twitched under my ass. “You’ll be punished.”
I don’t think I want to know what that entails.
“That said,” Cole continued, “as we’re exploring this and learning what you like, we’ll push your boundaries. If we do something you’re not into, tell us. Immediately. Don’t try to deal with it or push through because you think that’s what we want.”
I fluttered my lashes. “So no punishments because I won’t like those.”
His smirk was all cocky ego and fiery lust. “You won’t hate them, either.”
That was highly unlikely, but I let it go and thought about what I knew from life. The things I’d overheard that hadn’t made sense at the time. “Do I need like a safe word or whatever?”
Cole shook his head. “Like I said earlier, you say stop, that’s it. It stops. You’re putting your trust in us. In Marco and me to be your Daddies, but in the three of us to be your men.”
“We wouldn’t ever do anything to jeopardize that,” Freddy added as he snagged my arm and pulled me to stand.
“Hey,” Marco said, though he let me go.
He settled me on his lap like a warped game of musical chairs. “Sharing is caring.”
I was happy in either lap, so I didn’t complain.
Everything they’d said sounded well and good—or well and perfect, really—but the possible punishments hung over my head.
Apprehension kicked in. “So if I said I don’t want to be humiliated or like, um, exposed in public…”
Their expressions shifted from horrified to murderous as I spoke.
Marco looked like he regretted letting me out of his hold. “If you think we’d ever let anyone see what’s ours, baby girl, you’re wrong .”
I deflated just as fast. “Okay, good. I wouldn’t like that , but I also just don’t like attention on me.”
“You’ve got ours, and that’s something you’ll have to deal with,” Cole said. “Don’t know why you hate when I call you goddess, but that’s also something you’re gonna have to deal with. Because that’s who you are to us. Someone to worship and adore.” He paused like he was waiting for me to argue.
I didn’t.
I was sick of letting Abraham and Eternal Sun dictate anything in my life.
Cole wasn’t done. Shifting on the couch, he leaned forward so his face was all I could see. “You’re also someone we’d do anything to protect. Including taking a life.” For the first time since I’d met him, he wasn’t just shy. He seemed nervous, a thread of it in his voice as he added, “And it wouldn’t be the first time.”
I gave a soft, awkward laugh before taking in the somberness of his expression. I looked around him at Marco. Face blank, his body was tense as he leaned forward. Braced like he was ready to move fast.
Or grab me if I tried to?
I wasn’t sure. All I knew was he didn’t contradict his friend’s words.
Only Freddy seemed as taken off guard as me. “Hey, maybe?—”
But Cole gave a sharp shake of his head. “This part doesn’t involve you. You’ve already made your decision with me. With us. We’re asking for her trust. We want to make sure she knows exactly who she’s giving it to because like I told her earlier, once I let her in, I’m not letting go.”
I waited for the just kidding . For him to clarify that it was an exaggeration. A turn of phrase.
It didn’t happen.
Three sets of expectant eyes waited for a response.
I cleared my dry throat. “So you’ve…”
It was Marco who answered. “It’s not part of our daily schedule and never someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
“Like, they scratched your car or kicked your puppy?” I asked, needing clarification. Needing to know where their lines were.
“Rapists. Sex traffickers. The worst kind of abusers.”
Cole tilted his head. “Though part of our job includes occasionally breaking a bone or two of someone who tried to fuck over Maximo.” He gave me a weighty look. “Or someone who touched a server in a walk-in before she was even ours.”
“Nico? Did you?—”
“Broken hand but still breathing.” He didn’t seem thrilled about that last part.
I’d always thought it was a miracle that I could grow up the way I had and still be basically normal.
I was beginning to doubt that was true.
Because as one of the three men I was involved with told me that they’d killed before, would kill for me, and had already hurt someone for touching me, I wasn’t planning my escape.
No.
Instead, I weighed my words before asking, “So if he were to do that now that I’m yours, you’d…?”
“Without a second’s hesitation,” Cole answered instantly with a completely straight face.
“Welp.” Freddy stood, taking me with him. Thankfully, his hold stayed firm as it spanned my waist, or my shaking legs probably would’ve given out. “This seems like a good spot to end for the night.”
His words were pleasant enough, but the tone and angry daggers he shot at them were far from friendly.
I didn’t say anything as he steered me away and up the steps. He stopped in the hallway, not entering the room he’d taken my virginity in.
While his best friend—who was also probably more—fucked my mouth and his other friend watched.
This is such a mess.
“That was a lot, little steak. Take some time. Think it through. They weren’t exaggerating when they said who they hurt. If anything, they undersold it. They go after the worst of the worst so people can sleep better at night.”
“Any other secrets I should know?”
“Yes. Frédéric is my last name. My first name is Laurent.”
I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but that wasn’t it. Compared to everything else that’d been said and shared that night, it seemed anticlimactic.
Until he continued. “The only one who called me that was my father, also a Laurent, and I loathe him. We haven’t spoken in years. Don’t call me it, but I thought you should know my real name.”
“Your real name is Freddy,” I said before a realization hit me.
I was staying with them. I’d slept with them.
But I didn’t know their full names.
Freddy must’ve been a mind reader. “Marco Kent and Cole Stafford.”
“Thanks,” I whispered.
A small smile curved his lips, and he reached for me.
I stepped back, and both his arms and his smile dropped.
I wanted to explain that if he touched me, I wouldn’t be thinking. I would fall into his arms and pretend the end of the conversation never happened. I couldn’t do that.
Before I could speak, he hid his hurt and got back on topic. “My job description doesn’t involve the same things theirs does, but I’m well aware of what they do. And like that hardheaded asshole said, I made my decision.” There was a firmness in his stare. A protective earnestness in his voice. “If you don’t make the same one, I hope you’ll at least keep everything they shared to yourself.” He brushed a tender kiss to my lips before walking away without another word.
Leaving me to obsess.
Alone.
Freddy
“I can’t believe you told her that.”
Standing in the doorway to the sunroom, I wanted to storm over and punch my best friend for possibly costing me Callie.
I wanted to punch him for possibly costing us Callie.
I wanted to punch him for taking such a stupid fucking risk.
Last I knew, the plan was to make sure she didn’t find out any incriminating information. I didn’t know they were going to serve it—and themselves—up on a silver platter.
Mostly, I wanted to hug him. Reassure him. Get his shoulders to relax by promising everything would be okay.
But I couldn’t do that. I had no fucking clue if it would be or not.
“She deserved to know,” he muttered, his voice a void.
“What if she can’t deal? Or worse, what if she goes to the cops?”
“Then it’s better that she knows now before we get in any deeper.”
He didn’t respond to the other part. I didn’t know if it was because he trusted Callie or because she didn’t know any specifics that could do any damage.
Not the legal kind, at least.
Emotionally, it would tear us up if she betrayed their confidence.
At my silence, he finally spun in his chair. He jerked his chin. “Come here.”
I’d wanted him to call for me like that for… Merde , for too long.
I wanted it more now that it was the four of us. Something that had felt so damn right from the beginning.
I didn’t allow myself to close the distance. “A heads-up would’ve been nice. If that was the only time I was gonna have with her, I’d have kissed her longer.”
Then I stalked out.
Hoping, like I bet he was, that he hadn’t just fucked everything up.
“Freddy?”
At the frantic whisper, I forced my lids open and blinked.
Not a dream.
A wet dream, but one who’s actually here.
I went up on my elbow and glanced at the clock to see it was after two in the morning. “What is it? What’s wrong? Why’re you awake?”
She waved away the last part. “I never sleep well.”
We’d noticed it in the hospital, but we’d assumed it was the surroundings and the pain.
She wrapped her arms around herself. “Does it make you a bad person to be okay with them and the murdery stuff?”
My thoughts raced at her question.
At how she’d phrased it.
She’d asked about me. Not Cole or Marco. That could mean she’d decided she couldn’t be okay with them but was more on the fence about me.
It should’ve made me happy.
It didn’t.
I wanted Callie. Fuck, I wanted her. But I wanted all of it with Cole. Hell, even Marco had his place in whatever the hell it was.
I kept my voice casual—or as casual as it could be at that time of night. “Why’re you asking?”
“I’m not torn.” She paced the front of the bed. “I should be. No. I should’ve already left. But I’m still here, and I’m not torn.”
“Come here.” Unlike earlier when I’d reached for her, she didn’t gut my heart out with a fillet knife by backing away. She climbed into the bed and let me pull her to me before resting her head on my chest. “I’m not a bad person because they aren’t going after good people. They’re not doing what they do out of greed or as a first resort. The world’s an ugly place, mon ciel étoilé. What they do makes it better. Not worse.”
She was silent for a minute, and I thought she’d fallen asleep until she whispered, “I liked it.”
“Liked what?”
She didn’t answer my question. “For most of my life, no one really cared about me. My parents were wrapped in themselves and their lives. Even within the communes, I was a worker bee, easily replaced.”
Cole had quickly shared about their earlier conversation while we’d waited for the pictures of the mannequin to come through. Learning she grew up like that answered a lot of questions.
It also made it more impressive she’d managed to hold on to her sweetness.
I didn’t know if that used to be true before but it sure as fuck wasn’t then. Not to us. “You’re irreplaceable.” She gave a little scoff, but I kept going. “It’s true. This only works with you. If you decide you’re not into it, we don’t hold casting calls to fill your spot. It ends.”
“Not to sound like I’m fishing for compliments, but… Why me?”
“You’re you.” It wasn’t the most informative answer, but it was the one I had. There was something about her that called to each of us in a different way. Healed a damaged part of our fucked-up souls.
Brought us together in a way no one else could.
After another stretch of silence she whispered, “When he said they would kill for me, it freaked me out a little, but it mostly made me feel like my chest was going to burst. I liked it.”
She wasn’t asking if it made me a bad person.
She was worried it made her one.
“You should like it,” I told her. “Anyone who hurts you enough to earn that punishment doesn’t deserve your sympathy or guilt.”
She lifted to look down at me in the low light from the hallway. “Is that how you feel knowing they would do the same for you?”
I didn’t argue with her statement. It was a fact. They would kill for me. Maximo, Ash, Cole, and Marco were all waiting for me to give the okay to take out my father. Laurent wasn’t worth the risk or the effort, but it was comforting to know the option was there.
“Yes,” I said.
She dropped her head to my chest. “You smell like something.”
“Smoke,” I admitted.
“I didn’t know you did that.”
“Only when I’m drunk or stressed.”
Even when I was drunk, I usually only smoked if Cole was there to get a rise out of him.
“I’ll go shower,” I added.
Barely awake, her words were soft and slurred. “It’s fine. There’s just something familiar about the smell.” A shiver wracked her body, and I tugged the blanket higher.
Her breaths evened out in under a minute. I closed my eyes and was about to fall asleep, too.
“Thank fuck.”
At the rough, agitated voice, I opened my lids to see Cole stalk toward us. “Her room was empty. I thought she left.”
“Just came in for a chat,” I whispered, trying not to wake her.
“And?”
“And she liked what you said and worried that made her a bad person. Made us bad people.”
He crouched near the head of it. “I’m guessing since she’s asleep in your arms, you talked her down.”
I was tempted to lie and say I used it to my advantage to steal her away for myself. He deserved a little torture. But I took pity on him. “Seems like it.”
He brushed her hair from her face before doing the same with mine. His hand stayed on me. “Thank you.”
“Didn’t do it for you. Did it for us.”
“I’m awake. You can stop talking about me in front of my back,” Callie muttered, not sounding that awake. She snuggled closer to me. “But thank you for telling him so I didn’t have to.”
“Good.” He stood and nudged me. “Move over.”
“There is no over to move.” Of the three guest rooms, I drew the short straw with the smaller bed.
Since joining us would’ve resulted in someone falling on the floor, he swooped down and stole our woman from my arms.
“Hey!”
But he left the room, carrying her with him.
I started to follow before pausing to softly knock on the closed door across the hall.
“Come in.”
I opened it to Marco already climbing from the bed, reaching for a shirt. “She gone? Any clue where?”
“No, she’s here.”
He froze, his shocked eyes going to me. “Heard someone stomping down the hall. Assumed she was in the wind.”
I gave him the same recap I gave Cole. “It seems like she’s staying, so I thought you’d want to know.”
He tossed his shirt down and walked by, pausing long enough to squeeze my shoulder—his version of Cole’s grateful touch.
Though that appreciation from Cole seemed to be short-lived. When we walked into the other bedroom, the suddenly ungrateful bastard was in the middle of the bed with Callie asleep against his side. His long limbs were spread out to take up space as he tried to throw my words back at me. “No over to move.”
But payback and all that, it was Marco’s turn to steal her. He rearranged them as I climbed into the large bed on the other side until we were positioned like earlier—Marco, Callie, Cole, then me.
I must’ve fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, Marco was climbing from the bed.
“What’s wrong?” Callie asked him.
“I roll too much.”
“That’s okay.”
“I’d keep you awake, baby girl. Stay here with them.” He dipped to kiss her. “Just wanted you to know how fucking happy I am you’re staying.”
She flopped back as he left the room. I thought about switching to take his spot, but I stayed where I was.
With my body curved around Cole’s and my arm stretched over both of them.